Quintus Marius Primus wrote:Have been asked, what would "Lost Lands" be in Latin? The person who asked me suggested "terra absentia" but I am not happy with the word absentia - that is medieval latin. Any classical latin suggestions?
First of all, "absentia, absentiae, f." is substantival, that is a noun and not an adjective. I believe the appropriate adjectival form of that word is absens, absentis, so it would be "terrae absentes" where "absens," the participial form of the verb "absum" is used as an adjective.
Furthermore, "absentia" or "absens" both are used by Cicero. In fact, if you look in the Oxford Latin or the Lewis and Short, s.v. "absens" or "absentia," Cicero is cited as having used it. This doesn't mean that it isn't used more frequently in Mediaeval Latin, but I wouldn't necessarily categorize it as non-Classical.
Alternatively, one might say "terrae ablatae" or "terrae omissae" or maybe even "terrae amissae." Recently I came across the word "repostas ... gentis" in the Aneid, which refers to "remote tribes" (repostas is sycope for repositas, from repono), so you could even say "terrae repositae." It all depends on what exactly you want "lost lands" to mean - abandoned lands, forsaken lands or simply remote or unexplored lands?
How about Terrae aviae?
Actually, I like the sound of that.